In my previous life as a freelance writer, back in the 80's and early 90's, I did a lot of magazine articles on chemical weapons, particularly about the "binary nerve gas" controversy during the Reagan Administration, and the proliferation of chemical weapons in the 1980's to countries like Syria, Libya, Iraq, Thailand, and others. I had a couple sources in the Pentagon and in disarmament groups like SIPRI. I started work on a book manuscript on the subject, but in 1993, when the Chemical Weapons Convention was signed, interest in chemical weapons plummeted, and I never finished it. I stored it on a floppy disk and left it in a drawer.
Well, today, given the renewed interest in chemical weapons, I decided to look for it, and found it. So I spent the day today reading through it, doing some research to update the parts that need updating, and preparing it to be published.
So what I am going to do is post the entire rough draft manuscript here, in a series of diaries. I hope it will provide some useful background info on CBW that people can keep in mind when reading about the situation in Syria. And I'd also like to recruit some editors--I'd appreciate any feedback from folks, especially about parts that might not be clear or are hard to understand.
I'll start with the Introduction, which gives a very brief but necessary explanation of the basics of chemical/biological warfare and defines some of the jargon. Here goes:
Bugs And Bombs
A History of the Chemical and Biological Arms Race
by Lenny Flank
Red and Black Publishers, St Petersburg, Florida
(c) copyright 2013 by Lenny Flank. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction
One: History of CBW
Two: The Debate Over Binary Nerve Gas
Three: Bioengineering and CBW
Four: CBW Proliferation
Five: CBW Defenses
Six: CBW Arms Control
Conclusion
Introduction
Throughout the course of human history, disease and pestilence have killed far more people than wars ever have. It was only within recent decades, however, that political and military leaders made the conscious decision to utilize disease and pestilence as weapons of war. CBW, or “chemical/biological warfare”, was an accepted part of battle for much of the 20th century. Today, both chemical and biological weapons have been outlawed by international treaties.
Broadly defined, the term “chemical weapon” refers to any toxic substance which can be used to cause harm or death to humans, livestock or crops for military purposes. Military establishments have throughout history produced a wide variety of chemicals with potential wartime uses, from the relatively harmless tear gases to the lethal nerve gases. Lethal chemical weapons were banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
Each individual compound is referred to as a particular chemical “agent”. The majority of chemical agents are militarily effective only if they are inhaled into the lungs of the victim, and these usually take the form of a mist or an aerosol. While some chemical agents can be delivered or “disseminated” as a gaseous vapor, most take the form of liquids which are ejected under pressure to form a fine mist or cloud of droplets. Despite the fact that most chemical agents are actually liquids, it is common practice to refer to all of them as “poison gas”.
After dissemination, the liquid agents will settle onto exposed surfaces before eventually evaporating into the atmosphere and dispersing. The length of time over which a chemical weapon remains effective before evaporating is known as the agent’s “persistence”. Some agents evaporate quickly after dissemination, and have little or no persistence. These weapons are intended to take effect by being inhaled as the gas drifts to the ground.
Other agents, such as mustard gas or VX nerve gas, have a high persistence and can remain lethal for weeks after they are delivered. These weapons are intended to take affect when unprotected persons touch exposed surfaces and absorb some of the chemical through the skin.
The first major category of chemical weapons are the herbicides. These are powerful plant poisons which are designed to be used on cultivated areas to destroy enemy food crops. In Vietnam, the United States made extensive use of chemical herbicides to remove jungle foliage and thus deprive the Viet Cong guerrillas of cover. Military herbicides used by the US included Agent White, Agent Blue and Agent Orange.
The most familiar of the anti-personnel chemical agents are the so-called tear gases, known in military circles as “lachrymators”. Often used for riot and crowd control, tear gases produce intense burning and itching in the mucous membranes, difficulty in breathing and copious tear flow. Some of the more powerful lachrymators also produce painful skin reactions. Tear gases were heavily used by US troops in Vietnam and also by Soviet troops in Afghanistan. In both instances, the agents were used to force enemy guerrillas from their caves and bunkers and out into the open where they could be attacked.
The branch of chemical agents which are designed to subdue an enemy without killing or injuring him are known as incapacitating agents, or “incaps”. These are based on psycho-chemicals and hallucinogens such as LSD or mescaline. When these were used on an enemy, the reasoning went, the opposing troops would fall into a stuporous state of euphoria and could easily be overrun and disarmed.
Although the Pentagon carried out extensive testing on the incaps, only two agents were ever standardized as weapons and only one, known as Agent BZ, was ever actually deployed in munitions. The unpredictable results of hallucinogen-induced behavior led the Pentagon to phase out the development of incaps, and they were no longer considered for military use. The entire US incap arsenal was destroyed.
The choking gases are the crudest and least effective of the lethal chemical agents. The two most widely-known choking gases, chlorine and phosgene, have the dubious honor of being the first agents used in widespread chemical warfare. Both sides used these gases extensively during the First World War.
Chlorine and phosgene kill by attacking the lung tissues and causing the accumulation of fluid and mucus in the lungs. The choking gases must be inhaled to take effect. Because they have strong, easily-recognized odors, these gases are relatively easy to detect and defend against. Due to their relatively low toxicity and their ease of detection, neither chlorine nor phosgene are currently considered to be effective military weapons.
The so-called blood gases are powerful poisons which kill quickly by interfering with the ability of the red blood cells to carry oxygen. One of the blood gases, hydrogen cyanide, was the principle component in the Zyklon B used to murder the captives at Auschwitz. Some nations are believed to have stockpiled hydrogen cyanide and other blood gases as wartime agents. France used it briefly during the First World War.
Another widely-known branch of chemical agents is the blister gases, or vesicants, which include lewisite and mustard. Unlike the choking gases, which must be inhaled to take effect, the vesicants are corrosive liquids which attack any exposed tissues. Although they are not usually fatal, the vesicants produce excruciating chemical burns for which there is no known cure. For decades during World War II and the Cold War, the US maintained a small stockpile of mustard weapons, while the USSR deployed munitions using mustard and a mustard-lewisite mixture.
The most recent of the lethal chemical agents (and, so far, the most deadly) are the cholinesterase inhibitors, commonly known as “nerve gases”. Three types of nerve gas were developed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, but Hitler never took advantage of the devastating new weapons.
After the war, both the US and the USSR studied the new chemicals and adapted them for their own arsenals. The Americans incorporated the German chemical Tabun into their arsenal as Agent GA. The compound Sarin joined the US arsenal as Agent GB, and the liquid Soman was standardized as Agent GD. In the early 1950’s, British researchers discovered two more varieties of nerve gas, known by the code names VE and VX. Throughout the Cold War, the US nerve gas arsenal was made up of Agents GB and VX, while the Soviets relied on Soman and a thickened version of Soman known as VR-55. A handful of other nations are known or suspected of having stockpiled the nerve gases Tabun, Sarin or VX. The Japanese subway attack in 1995 was carried out by a fringe religious cult, the Aum Shinrikyo, using a crude home-made version of Sarin. Iraq used Sarin and Tabun in its war with Iran. Syria was accused of using Sarin in its civil war with US-backed rebels.
The nerve gases were almost perfect as agents of war. They are colorless, odorless, tasteless and cannot be detected without sophisticated equipment. Lethal doses are absorbed by unprotected people before any tell-tale symptoms appear, and the chemical is effective if it is absorbed through the lungs or through the skin. Nerve gases are also incredibly lethal; just one drop of VX the size of a pinhead, whether inhaled or in contact with the skin, is fatal. Agent VX also has the advantage of being very persistent. It has the consistency of motor oil, and can contaminate a battlefield for several weeks after it is released.
The theory behind the use of chemical weapons was simple; find the enemy, attack him with a cloud of agents before he is able to don any protective equipment, and allow the area to become decontaminated and safe before moving friendly troops in.
In practice, however, the utilization of chemical weapons was much more complex. The first challenge to be met is that of finding a method of delivering a suitable amount of chemicals to the intended target. The earliest chemical attacks were carried out with the aid of hundreds of chemical-filled pressure cylinders. The attackers simply waited until the winds were favorable, then opened the canisters to release a cloud of gas. This cloud was carried by winds to the enemy lines.
This method, however, quickly proved to be unsatisfactory. It was impossible to aim the chemical cloud with any degree of precision, and the reliance on favorable weather conditions made the entire arsenal useless on days when winds were unfavorable or absent. On several occasions, sudden wind shifts carried clouds of gas back towards the original attackers, causing casualties among their own troops.
In an effort to counter these problems, armies began placing chemical agents inside chambered artillery shells, which exploded at the target to release a cloud of gas in the midst of enemy troops. This system greatly reduced dependency on wind conditions.
Modern artillery shells, aerial bombs and missiles loaded with CBW payloads were based on these same principles, but weather conditions continued to play a role in chemical tactics. High winds, for instance, will tend to quickly disperse the gas clouds, while heavy rains will wash away persistent chemicals and ruin their effectiveness. In very cold conditions, many of the agents themselves will freeze, causing problems with dissemination and reducing the effectiveness of the attack.
All of the chemical agents which attack the lungs can be defended against with gas masks, which use a system of filters to prevent the wearer from inhaling the chemicals. To combat this defense, military planners introduced the vesicant agents, which attack any exposed skin and thus cause casualties whether or not they are inhaled. Defenders were thus forced to wear full anti-contamination suits as well as the masks in order to protect themselves from crippling chemical burns. Modern nerve agents, which are lethal in contact with exposed skin, made these suits a vital necessity in defending against chemical attacks.
These suits are bulky and awkward, however, and reduce the mobility and combat effectiveness of the troops which are forced to wear them. This provides a military advantage for the attacker, particularly against armies that depend on highly mobile “blitzkrieg” tactics. The thrust of modern chemical warfare was geared, therefore, not so much towards causing casualties among the attacked troops, but towards forcing them to operate impeded by their bulky anti-contamination equipment.
Because of this, modern chemical strategy envisioned a number of methods to harass opposing troops and force them to remain “suited up”. In tactical or battlefield areas, chemical-filled artillery shells, rockets or short-range missiles can be used to deliver harassing lachrymators or non-persistent lethal agents such as GB or hydrogen cyanide. This bombardment will kill a number of opposing troops, impede the effectiveness of the rest, and leave the battle area safe and decontaminated after the attack, allowing friendly troops to move in immediately.
On the other hand, rear areas such as airfields, guerrilla bases, supply bases and communications centers, can be saturated with persistent agents like VX or mustard. These attacks will force enemy personnel to wear the protective suits for long periods at a time, and interfere with communications, logistics and command.
While there have been no examples of the strategic use of CBW (by attacking unprotected cities, for example), there are no technical reasons why this could not have been done. In an all-out chemical war, enemy population centers and industrial areas could be struck repeatedly with chemical-filled bombs, cruise missiles or ballistic missiles. Clouds of gas released into the air by aircraft spray tanks would be carried by the wind to contaminate wide areas. While it is logistically very difficult to produce lethally-high concentrations of chemical agent over large areas, smaller areas can be covered by dense clouds of gas, producing high casualty rates among unprotected civilians in the area.
In contrast to the artificial poisons and chemicals used in chemical warfare, biological warfare depends on the use of living organisms or their toxins to produce contamination and disease in the enemy’s food crops, livestock, troops, and population. The United States unilaterally renounced the use of germ warfare in 1969, and the development of such weapons has been outlawed internationally by the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.
In the history of biological warfare research, a number of pathogenic microbes were considered by various countries as possible weapons. Pathogenic organisms have been selected and specifically bred to enhance their virulence and increase their killing power.
Some of the earliest BW agents to come under study were the bacterial diseases, including the ancient killers plague, anthrax, typhoid fever, cholera and gas gangrene. In later years, however, researchers turned to a number of lesser-known bacteria, and introduced brucellosis, melioidosis, glanders and Legionnaire’s disease into their biological research programs.
Another large group of potential biological weapons are the viral agents. These include some of the most lethal and poorly-understood of all human diseases. Among the exotic tropical diseases which have come under military scrutiny are Dengue fever, Lassa fever, encephalomyelitis, psittacosis, hemorrhagic fever and chikungunya. Other viral diseases, such as the well-known yellow fever and Colorado fever, were introduced early in BW research and were later dropped.
Research also centered, in the early days, on typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which are caused by a class of organism known as a rickettsia. Another rickettsial disease, Q Fever, seemed to show enormous promise as a biological weapon, and was the object of considerable research.
A small group of potential biological agents were derived from certain types of fungi. These included coccidiomycosis or “San Joaquin valley fever”, and the rare fungal disease blastomycosis. Both of these diseases are often fatal.
In later years, the thrust of most biological research turned from the pathogens themselves to the various exotoxins and enterotoxins which are produced by many microbes. Other toxins were extracted from a handful of plants and animals and purified for use in weapons. These toxins are not alive and cannot reproduce, and some military researchers had at one time argued that they are chemical, not biological, weapons. By international convention, however, the term “biological weapon” has been expanded to include both the microbes and their bio-toxins.
Among the bio-toxins which have received serious attention as possible weapons are the diphtheria toxin, the botulin toxin, the tetanus toxin, the shigella toxin, the toxin ricin (which is produced from the castor bean plant), and the natural poisons produced by the South American arrow poison frog and several exotic marine animals.
These natural toxins include some of the most lethal substances known to science. The protein toxin ricin, extracted from the seed coat of the castor bean, is several times more lethal than nerve gas, while a single fluid ounce of botulin toxin is enough, theoretically, to kill over sixty million people.
Potential biological agents must be selected according to a number of rigid criteria. The disease to be induced must be serious enough to kill or at least incapacitate the targeted troops, and treatment for the disease must be difficult or impossible. The organism itself must be hardy enough to survive the rigors of dissemination as well as the extremes of temperature and climate encountered in use. It must demonstrate a high level of infectiousness so as to contaminate the maximum possible area with the minimum amount of material. (The Q Fever rickettsia, for instance, is so extremely infectious that a single organism inhaled into the lungs may be enough to produce the disease.) For maximum effect, it is necessary that the targeted population possesses no treatment or vaccine capable of halting the spread of the disease.
At the same time, however, it is essential that the attacker possesses a reliable vaccine against any biological agent he might use. Once properly vaccinated, friendly troops can move into a contaminated area with no fear of infection. Ideally, the agent itself should be rendered harmless after infestation or infection has taken place. Botulin toxin, for instance, kills quickly, but breaks down into harmless components after six hours in the atmosphere. Attackers using botulin weapons can theoretically kill everyone in an enemy-held area, wait six hours, then occupy the site without danger. Most BW agents, however, will contaminate the site permanently, and must be sanitized or decontaminated to be rendered harmless.
The dissemination of biological weapons, however, presents several problems which are not encountered in the use of chemical weapons. Biological agents require a period of time after dissemination to cause an infection and produce disease. This “incubation period” varies from a day to several weeks. In most cases, the pathogen must be introduced about two weeks before the time of the desired outbreak. The bio-toxins, of course, have no incubation period and take effect immediately.
Biological weapons also present more variety in their dissemination methods than chemical weapons. Invading armies can release huge clouds of pathogenic organisms that can infect thousands of square miles, while commando teams or terrorists can wipe out selected cities by introducing a small amount of toxin or infectious material into the water or food supplies. Biological toxins can also be used in selective assassinations, a job for which the CIA purified a number of poisons throughout the 1960’s.
In the early stages of biological warfare research, the dissemination of agents most often took place through the use of an intermediary or carrier, known in military parlance as a “vector”. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the US Army carried out a series of experiments using insect vectors. In one experiment, the Defense Department released 20,000 mosquitoes into a mosquito-free area of Florida. Within days, a large number of people had been bitten. In time of war, the reasoning went, hordes of mosquitoes that had been infected with malaria or yellow fever could be released into hostile areas, and these vectors would in turn spread the disease to hostile troops.
The vector strategy, however, produced too many logistical problems and was eventually dropped, although researchers still carried out occasional experiments with potential vectors. The next method of biological warfare called for the pathogens themselves to be dropped directly in the form of an airborne aerosol. Since an airborne microbe can drift for hundreds of miles before infecting someone, dispersed aerosols can infect huge areas at a time.
Researchers later realized, however, that such huge clouds of infectious organisms would be extremely difficult to limit to a target area, and would be nearly impossible to eradicate in the aftermath of the war. In one series of Army war games carried out in the 1960’s, for instance, a simulated biological attack “killed” or “incapacitated” 75% of the hostile invading force, but also “killed” 60,000 friendly civilians.
As a result, research turned from the dissemination of live pathogens to the “third generation” of biological weapons—the bio-toxins which are produced by many micro-organisms. This research reached explosive levels during the 1970’s, as a result of the new technology of genetic engineering and “gene splicing”. The most dangerous of the potential biological weapons are genetically-engineered bio-toxins, which can be produced in large amounts, are lethal at low concentrations, and can be easily and reliably disseminated.
Next: Chapter One: The History of CBW